The European e-Business Report The European e ... - empirica
The European e-Business Report The European e ... - empirica
The European e-Business Report The European e ... - empirica
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>European</strong> E-<strong>Business</strong> <strong>Report</strong> 2005<br />
3.4.3 Summary and conclusions<br />
Various surveys and interviews indicate that Slovakia is lagging behind in the use of electronic<br />
commerce compared to other EU countries (the current rank within the index of e-business readiness<br />
reflects the situation). Although companies in Slovakia are progressing in the adoption of procurement<br />
mechanisms, better knowledge of strategies and mechanisms for achieving higher efficiency and cost<br />
reduction (e.g., reverse auctions, electronic markets, spend management tools) is still absent.<br />
A major difficulty is represented by the size of local market which is, in a global environment, a<br />
disadvantage for local companies. This is most obvious in the publishing industry, where most online<br />
buyers prefer foreign online shops to local ones mainly because of prices. <strong>The</strong> Slovak industry in<br />
general is still affected by traditional business relations based on past experience or friendship.<br />
A factor that might positively affect the use of e-commerce development, mainly within the mechanical<br />
engineering industry, is foreign direct investments of world automobile producers such as Kia, Citroen,<br />
Peugeot and Ford. All of them are members of world’s most significant automobile electronic market<br />
Covisint.<br />
Advancements in e-business adoption are mainly driven by the intrinsic motivation of enterprises to<br />
increase their process efficiency and competitiveness, rather than by national policies. Despite the fact<br />
that the financial support of educational programmes and training for the knowledge-based society has<br />
increased, the public awareness of electronic commerce and its potential is still very low. Even though<br />
companies have confidence in the internet security of online shopping, the general public still does<br />
not. This might be critical in the further development and adoption of electronic commerce by other<br />
companies.<br />
References<br />
ANPROBA “Analyses of business environment and barriers in regional absorption ability” governmental research<br />
and development assignment SP 200280302<br />
GfK Slovakia: Internet adoption in Slovakia (survey) http://www.gfk.sk/sk/default.asp<br />
IT Association Slovakia: Government has fulfilled 31% of informatisation strategy. February 2005,<br />
http://www.itas.sk/buxus/generate_page.php?page_id=867<br />
IT News: Almost half of the Slovak population doesn´t work with computers. July 2005<br />
http://www.itnews.sk/buxus_dev/generate_page.php?page_id=923038<br />
MINERVA “Mobilisation of innovation in the national economy and the development of scientific-educational<br />
activities” http://www.iminerva.sk<br />
Pennoni, F. – Tarantola, S. – Latvala, A.: <strong>The</strong> 2005 <strong>European</strong> e-<strong>Business</strong> Readiness Index. September 22, 2005.<br />
<strong>Report</strong> using data from the 2004 <strong>European</strong> Union enterprise survey.<br />
“Performance measurement of dynamic transaction methods in electronic commerce” Vega -1/1222/04, National<br />
research project funded by Scientific grant agency of Ministry of Education and Slovak Academy of Sciences<br />
Slovak e-<strong>Business</strong> Industry Research ”This work was supported by Science and Technology Assistance Agency<br />
under the contract No. APVT-20-030504”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ministry of Economy http://www.economy.gov.sk<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications http://www.telecom.gov.sk<br />
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